


The Goddess

by la_muerta



Series: October 2019 Writing Prompt Insanity [3]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, F/F, M/M, SHFallFic Week 3: Eldritch Horror, everybody is a badass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 12:35:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21015866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/la_muerta/pseuds/la_muerta
Summary: Maia is one of the best explorers in the business, but Isabelle and her brothers, who come from a long line of rich, illustrious explorers with plenty of resources at their command, keep beating Maia to the punch.But this time, Maia isn't going to let Isabelle Lightwood win, even if it means teaming up with a slightly shady sorcerer. Because this time, the clues lead to a place she's dreamt of discovering as a child - the lost temple of the dancing goddess.





	The Goddess

Maia _knew_ that with her instincts and smarts she was one of the best explorers in the business, which was why she found the fact that Isabelle Lightwood had beat her to her find _again_ especially galling.

Maia was used to working alone; when she was just starting out, she had teamed up with a guy called Jordan who had wooed her with sweet talk and blinding smiles, only to try to leave her in a literal pit of vipers so he could steal her find. She'd wised up after that. Besides, she enjoyed doing all of it on her own - poring through stacks of obscure manuscripts in the library and studying old maps to figure out where they didn't match up, then planning her journey into the remote and often dangerous places with her limited resources while trying to avoid catching the attention of other treasure hunters who might want to steal the glory of discovering the ruins of an ancient city or long-lost tomb and rob Maia of her share of the treasure.

Isabelle Lightwood, on the other hand, came from a long line of illustrious adventurers and had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth. It wasn't that she was stealing Maia's research or spying on Maia, but three times now they'd both happened to set their eyes on the same ruins or artefact, figuring out the clues at the same time. The difference was that Isabelle had the money for bribing officials and hiring private jets, and by the time Maia arrived at the correct spot, often dishevelled, gross, and exhausted, Isabelle was already swanning around claiming the find while looking like she'd just stepped out of a photoshoot. And Maia couldn't even hate her for taking the treasure because the Lightwoods always donated their share to some worthy cause instead of adding to their already considerable wealth. 

This time, though, Maia was determined to win. It seemed unreal that _she_ had finally found the place that people had been searching for in vain for centuries, but she was certain that the clues led to a discovery that she had been dreaming about since she was a little girl. It was one of the reasons why she had become an explorer in the first place - to find the lost temple of the dancing goddess. 

Then Maia had heard through the grapevine that the Lightwoods were searching for the same temple, and in her desperation to beat Isabelle Lightwood, Maia had decided to venture into the underground marketplace to attempt to hire a mountain guide with her meagre savings, someone who knew the quickest routes through the mountain passes. Instead, she'd ended up striking an agreement with a sorcerer who had agreed to bring her there and back for the price of a third of her share of the treasure. 

Sorcerers were deeply mistrusted by most folk, and for good reason. After all, they could make you see things that weren't there and rob you blind before you noticed anything. But Maia had rather liked the sorcerer, who'd introduced himself only as Magnus - he had a wicked sense of humour and something told her that he had been lonely for a long time, just like her. 

She'd been a little wary, though, when Magnus had used some fancy powerful magic to get them right to the peak of the mountain range, because magic like that didn't come at the price of one third of a possible share of treasure. 

"You were right, I think we've found the temple," Magnus said, squinting into the distance. 

"Huh?" Maia had been so intent on keeping an eye on Magnus and maintaining her precarious footing that she had completely missed her first sight of the ruins of the temple cut into the side of the mountain range. It looked like it had been half buried by a rockfall decades ago, but she had been looking at old drawings of the temple since she was five and would recognise the distinctive shapes of its towers and doorways anywhere. Her heart soared. 

"Come on, I'll take us right to the door," Magnus said with a smile, and held out his hand to her as he drew up another magical portal. 

Maia hesitated for a second, then took it. 

\--

The entrance to the temple had collapsed upon itself, blocking the way completely, so it was lucky that she had Magnus with her because it would have taken her ages to clear it on her own, whereas Magnus had only needed to wave his hands to banish the pile of rocks. They had barely ventured a few steps into the darkness of the temple when Maia could have sworn that she heard a helicopter outside. 

"Is that the Lightwoods that you mentioned?" Magnus asked, his face lighting up. 

Maia frowned at him. "Yes, I guess so."

They turned back around and Maia made sure to stand right in the middle of the entrance. Sure enough, within moments the familiar faces of Isabelle and her brothers came into view. 

"Look who finally caught up," Maia drawled. "Well, I'm afraid you're too late this time. I win."

She'd expected Isabelle to throw a tantrum or attempt to forcefully remove her and Magnus, but instead Isabelle's expression grew earnest. "Maia," she greeted her. "I respect that this is your find, and I'm not trying to take this away from you. But if it's possible, could you please accept me as part of your exploration team?" 

Maia frowned. She hadn't expected Isabelle to even know her name. "Why?"

"It's been my dream since I was a little girl to find the temple of the dancing goddess. I'm not asking for a part of the treasure or anything like that, I just want to come with you," Isabelle said pleadingly. "I'll come alone if you're worried, without my brothers."

"No!" both Magnus and Isabelle's dark-haired brother said at the same time. 

Maia stared at Magnus.

"I mean, it could be dangerous in there. We could use all the help we can get," Magnus said nonchalantly, then couldn't resist adding, "It's lovely you see you again, Alexander." 

"Um. Yeah, hi, Magnus," Isabelle's brother said with a quick smile for Magnus before he tugged his sister aside.

While the three Lightwood siblings were having a furious whispered conversation, Maia turned to Magnus with her hands on her hips. "So _that's_ why you agreed to help me?" 

"Once you said that the Lightwoods might show up, I was in," Magnus agreed with a grin. "Well, that and curiosity, as well as a desire to help the underdog succeed. I promise you I'm not going to betray you, Maia, and I'll swear that on anything that you like." 

Both Maia and Magnus glanced over at where the Lightwoods were still arguing, and the two of them checked out the three siblings with a quick once-over. 

Maia wrinkled her nose. "That pancake ass?"

"Shush, you," Magnus admonished her.

Maia shrugged. "It'd have made more sense to me if it was Isabelle you were after." 

"Well, I'm not you. Not that Isabelle isn't very lovely, but the heart wants what the heart wants," Magnus retorted. He glanced over his shoulder at Isabelle's brother again and let out a wistful sigh. 

"Oh my god," Maia said with a laugh. 

Well, she could sympathise with Isabelle wanting to come along, and Isabelle had been surprisingly polite about it.

"Hey, you," she called to the Lightwoods. "Isabelle and this one can come with us," she said, pointing at the one Magnus had called Alexander.

Isabelle's face lit up. "Thank you!" she said, quickly hushing the protests of her fair-haired brother. 

"But I'm in charge, and you're not going to mess this up for me," Maia warned.

Isabelle nodded eagerly, and her brother scowled at Maia but nodded curtly as well.

"Try to keep up," Maia said as she and Magnus led the way.

\--

The temple reached deep into the bowels of the mountain range, beyond the reach of sunlight. There were carvings all along the walls of jackals and serpents, the animals sacred to the goddess, perched on stacks of skulls and clutching human bones in their jaws. The hallways were narrow and many had experienced cave-ins over the centuries, but Magnus cleared the way for them effortlessly. After a while Magnus drifted from Maia's side to Alec's, and Maia found herself walking next to Isabelle instead. 

"Have you been working with Magnus for long?" Isabelle asked. 

"No. I met him at the underground market yesterday," Maia replied.

"So you've been working solo all this time? You were always so close behind us," Isabelle said, sounding impressed. "How long have you been looking for this place?" 

"Since I was five," Maia admitted, and Isabelle flashed an infectious smile at her. 

"Can you believe we're finally _here_?" Isabelle said, practically bouncing on her feet in her excitement. "I hope nothing has happened to the statue." 

"Yeah, me too," Maia said, and couldn't help smiling back at Isabelle. 

As they travelled deeper into the temple, the carvings on the wall also became more elaborate. Most of the jackals were serpents now had gemstones for eyes, still intact after all these years, and large sections of the walls were covered in murals. Maia frowned as she took snaps of the stories told in the pictures. The temple was famous for supposedly having a 50-foot-tall statue of the Hindu goddess Kali, hand-carved by master craftsmen and inlaid with priceless gems. Unfortunately, the people had unknowingly built the temple in caves that had once been the tomb of some other ancient civilisation, and while they were expanding and digging deeper into the mountain, some disease or poison that had been sealed up in the caves had been unleashed on the unsuspecting people, killing all of them. The murals on the wall, on the other hand, seemed to tell a slightly different story. It seemed that the people had always known that there was something in the caves of the mountain, and that the temple had been built there on purpose in an attempt to suppress the evil in them. 

There was definitely a growing foul stench the deeper they went, but that was probably normal since the air here had been stale for centuries. It also seemed that the people who had died during the construction of the temple hadn't died quick, painless deaths - there were still murals on the wall, but the images were making less and less sense, filled with nightmare images of monstrous creatures which seemed to be made out of entire galaxies, the stars on their skin depicted more like glowing eyes. The carvings on the pillars had also given way to twisted human faces in torment, disturbingly life-like. They also found the skeletal remains of people who still had carving tools and paintbrushes in their hands, and Maia was starting to wonder if the builders, craftsmen, and artists who had worked on the temple had been accidentally trapped inside here, and gradually gone insane. The shadows seemed less friendly now and all of them were on edge, with even Magnus abandoning his personal quest to flirt shamelessly with Alec. 

Was that low creak echoing faintly through the twisting maze of hallways just the building settling or something else? Maia didn't know, but she drew her twin handguns and Izzy reached for her whip. Alec shifted his bow off his shoulder and Magnus' hands crackled with bright blue sparks. 

Then the hallway opened up to a wide empty space, and in the light of their flashlights Maia thought she saw something large lurking in the shadows in the other end of the room. Magnus gestured with a flourish, his magic settling into bright balls of lights in the wall sconces in the pillars that lined the walls, and everyone gasped. 

The walls of the large hall were sparkling with a repeated motif of blue lotuses on a white background, made entirely out of diamonds and sapphires. The floors were littered with solid gold coins and jewellery, all gone green as if they had once been in resting in a body of water that had now dried up. Above them, a pure black obsidian mirror reflected their awed faces with stunning clarity. But what really caught everyone's attention was a huge statue of a woman with four arms, her hair flying out behind her and her beautiful face frozen mid-laugh as she danced in wild abandon to a song nobody else could hear. Her skin was blue and she was naked except for a swinging garland of human heads and a skirt made out of severed arms, her bared breasts heavy and firm, and her limbs graceful. In her two left hands she held a sword and a severed head, and her two right hands had been depicted with their palms facing forward, one with its fingers pointing skyward in the "fear not" ritual gesture, or _mudra_, and the other outstretched like she was inviting them to dance with her in a "blessing" _mudra_. The craftsmanship was exquisite, making it look as if at any moment the stone goddess might take a breath and come to life, and there were gems everywhere - rubies dangling from her earlobes and in the gold bangles on her arms, and jewels as big as Maia's palm and in every colour of the rainbow set in her forehead, hands, and feet in delicate decorative patterns. Even the spray of blood gushing from the neck of the severed head in her hand was made from flawless rubies held together by fine chains of gold. 

"_For Terror is Thy name, Death is in Thy breath, and every shaking step destroys a world for ever_," Isabelle recited as both she and Maia drew nearer to the statue. 

It seemed too good to be true. Maia reached out to touch the statue, only for Alec to hiss out a warning. 

"Don't touch the statue," he barked out. "Let me try to translate the writing here first."

The four of them helped to clear a space on the floor where Alec had spotted some words in an ancient language with some similarities to Sanskrit. The engravings were caked with dried green sludge, and some had worn away completely. 

"See this word - it can mean either 'destroyer' or 'protector', but I can't tell which because the rest of this slab is unreadable," Alec said in frustration. 

"But from what I can read, this text is definitely about the statue," Maia said, and Alec agreed.

"Ok, so we probably shouldn't try to move it until we're sure what's going on. I don't think that's going to be a problem, it's huge," Isabelle pointed out, then seemed to remember that this was Maia's find. "Sorry, I didn't mean to overstep." 

"No, you're right. I have pictures and we can collect the gold here as proof that we've found the temple, whatever we can carry. The two of you may take a share too," Maia offered. "I think we can take some of the gemstones from the walls as well, but let's try to take those from the corners or pieces that are already loose, so that it doesn't spoil the design."

"I think we'll just take a piece or two as souvenirs, but thank you for offering," Isabelle replied, beaming. 

"If you don't mind, I'll try to take one of the gems from the wall for closer examination," Alec said. 

"You could examine _my_ jewels as much as you want," Magnus joked.

Maia caught Isabelle's eye while Alec sputtered in embarrassment and shared an eye-roll and secret smile with her. 

\--

It took them less than an hour to take everything, with the Lightwoods offering to help shoulder some of the burden. Maia was just taking a few more photos of the goddess when she noticed something seemed a bit odd. 

"Wait - where's the gem that was in the middle of her foot?" she asked. 

"Oh. Do you mean this one?" Magnus asked a little guiltily, holding up a ruby the size of a grape. 

"Magnus!" 

"You said not to _move_ it, not that I couldn't _touch_ it. In my defence, it was already loose," Magnus replied. 

There was an ominous crack from above them. Maia looked up, and to her horror, there were _things_ moving in the reflection shown in the black mirror above them things with far too many teeth and eyes and appendages. The four of them looked all around, but surely they would be able feel the things even if they were invisible. 

"I don't think that's a mirror. That's a _door_," Isabelle gasped. 

There was another loud crack as the polished black surface buckled under the strain of the countless monstrosities pushing against it, and they all flinched. Maia could see a thin white fissure working its way through the middle, and she didn't want to imagine what would happen if they broke through. Never mind the four of them surviving it - would the crumbling walls of the temple hold them in, or had they just started the end of the world?

"Sorry, this is my fault," Magnus said, dropping the ruby onto the floor. 

His magic flared up in his hands in blinding blue. With one hand he formed a net that he threw upwards to reinforce the weakening door, and Maia thought she could hear the creatures screaming behind the barrier, thousands of alien tongues that sounded like terror itself given voice. Magnus gestured with his other hand and threw out a ball of magic that swirled into a familiar form of a magical portal, and just beyond it Maia could see sunlight and green grass.

"Go. I'll try to hold them back," Magnus said. 

"What about you?" Alec asked.

Magnus smiled at him. "I'll be right behind you," he lied.

"We're not leaving you behind, don't be an idiot," Maia said firmly. She picked up the ruby that Magnus had dropped on the floor and strode up to the statue. The goddess's foot was just within reach, and Maia tried desperately to push the gem back into the empty recess, but it wouldn't fit anymore.

"Maia! I can't hold this any longer," Magnus warned, his voice strained. "Just go!"

There was another loud crack, and Magnus fell to his knees from the weight of the writhing mass of black shapes trying to break through into their world. The portal and the circle of sunlight winked out as Magnus was forced to use both hands to maintain the net, and Alec dashed forward to steady him. Maia could feel the malice from the creatures seeping through now, a pressure inside her head that felt like when changing air pressure caused her ears to get blocked but a lot more painful.

"We brought explosive devices, something I invented that can absorb and slow down the shockwaves after the initial blast. We could all run, and blow up the hallway leading here on the way out, and hopefully the explosion will be contained enough that we can get out of here before the whole temple collapses on us," Isabelle suggested, already unpacking the necessary items from the bag Alec was carrying.

"After we're all out, we'll blow up the whole top of the mountain as well. Surely that will stop those monsters," Alec said. 

"That was pretty much my plan, but using magic," Magnus admitted. "We can only hope that will be enough to stop them."

Isabelle set up the explosives swiftly, and the rest of them emptied their bags of all the gold and gems they had taken so that they wouldn't be weighed down by the treasure, then Alec helped Magnus get to his feet without breaking his focus on the magical net.

"Three, two, one - now!" Maia cried out.

Magnus let go of his reinforcements and they all made a mad dash down the dark hallway. Isabelle detonated the explosives once they were a distance away, and in the split second before the explosion, they heard the loud crack of the black glass breaking. The walls of the temple shuddered from the force of the explosion, and at first Maia thought she was imagining things, but the pillars were definitely moving - the twisted human-like carvings were coming to life, their eyes blank and grey and jaws unhinged in silent screams. Isabelle already had her whip in hand, swiftly taking off the head of the nearest one, and yet it still kept coming at her until Maia shattered the headless body with a bullet to the chest. They all had their weapons out in an instant, and the darkness was filled with a disorientating cacophony of sounds: the crash of stone against stone, the whistle of Isabelle's whip, the booms of Alec's explosive arrows finding their targets, the loud bangs from Maia's guns, and the crackle of Magnus' magic. With the four of them working together, they felled all the stone monsters and managed to reach the last stretch of hallway just in sight of the light from the entrance relatively unscathed, and that was when Maia heard the singing.

Maia didn't understand the words of the song, but it was joyous and unbridled, and the woman who was singing had a rich voice that seemed to awaken something in her very core. Now that Maia had noticed it, there was a rhythm to the distant thumps and the way the walls of the temple were shaking - as if someone was _dancing_. 

"Maia, come on!" Alec said gruffly, drawing her attention back to the urgency of their present situation.

As the four of them emerged from the temple, Alec sent a cluster of arrows into the darkness behind them, and as they detonated, Maia caught one last glimpse of the walls crumbling and falling before the entrance to the temple was sealed. The whole mountain was shuddering now, and they made a made dash for the helicopter belonging to the Lightwoods and piloted by Isabelle's blond brother, piling into it in a hurry.

"What's going on?" he demanded.

"Just take us up, Jace," Alec replied tersely.

Once they were safely in the air, Magnus fired a ball of magic at the a spot just above the temple already weakened by previous landslides, triggering a massive rockfall that buried the temple, and the lost temple of the dancing goddess was lost for good. Maia decided that it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, still thinking of the singing she had heard. Had she dreamed it all, in the chaos and madness of the dark temple? The helicopter circled the mountain, watching and waiting to see if any monsters would emerge, but a part of Maia knew that they were safe.

They were all covered in dust and grime, and as the adrenaline faded Maia gradually became aware that she was really exhausted, and closed her eyes to rest while Isabelle and Alec filled Jace in on everything that happened.

"I'm so sorry. I know it was your dream to find the temple," Magnus told Maia and Isabelle regretfully. 

"No, I don't think it was entirely your fault, maybe we shouldn't have touched the gold either. It could have been anything. What matters is that we're all safe," Maia said.

"I think some lost things are meant to stay lost," Isabelle agreed, echoing Maia's earlier thoughts. 

"At least we have the photos and the memories," Alec said consolingly, and put an arm around Isabelle. 

The Lightwoods were happy to share their water and food rations with Maia and Magnus, and as Isabelle handed Maia a bottle of water and a packet of biscuits, she leaned forward to whisper, "You heard it too, didn't you? The goddess was dancing."

Maia smiled and nodded, and she saw her own relief mirrored in Isabelle's expression. 

"Oh crap," Alec suddenly said, and they turned to see him holding up a pair of gold earrings with teardrop rubies, miniature versions of the ones the goddess had been wearing. "I don't remember taking these, but they must have gotten in my bag somehow," he said.

Maia took them from him and handed one to Isabelle. "We should each wear one," she suggested.

"Thank you, I will," Isabelle said with a bright smile, then added, "How would you like to join my brothers and I? I think we would make a really good team."

"And Magnus, too. I mean, if you want to," Alec added quickly.

Maia and Magnus exchanged a look and grinned at each other. 

"We would love to," Magnus said.

Maia turned to Isabelle, still grinning, and leaned a little closer. "Where shall we go next?" 


End file.
